Debunking archeological myths

Updated 1:29 pm, Monday, April 14, 2014

Dr. Kenneth Feder, an archaeologist, is shown on a desert site in Moab, Utah. He will present a program on "Frauds, Myths and Mysteries" Sunday, April 13, at the Barnum Museum.

Dr. Kenneth Feder, an archaeologist, is shown on a desert site in Moab, Utah. He will present a program on "Frauds, Myths and Mysteries" Sunday, April 13, at the Barnum Museum.

Photo: Contributed Photo, Contributed Photo

Debunking archeological myths

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C'mon. Admit it. Whenever the word "archaeologist" comes up in a conversation, the image of Indiana Jones, wearing a dashing fedora, comes to mind.

Or perhaps it's the image of Dr. Kenneth L. Feder, an archaeologist who's had his fair share of television "face time" as an expert on ancient worlds.

A professor of archaeology at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Feder also is the author of numerous books on archaeology and criticism of "pseudoarchaeology," including "Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology."

Feder will come to Bridgeport's Barnum Museum on Sunday, April 13, to present "Frauds, Myths and Mysteries." The event is part of the museum's celebration of practical jokes -- or "humbugs," as they were called -- which were a favorite of 19th-century showman, master marketer and Bridgeport mayor P.T. Barnum.

On April 1, also known as All Fools' Day, the museum unveiled its newest Barnum-esque humbug: the fossilized complete remains of a "centaur," a half-man, half-horse "curiosity" that exists only in myth.

Kathy Maher, museum executive director, said the event was all in good fun, and that she hopes curious folks will want to see the skeleton, which comes from the University of Wisconsin.

More Information

If you goThe Barnum Museum, 820 Main St., Bridgeport, in the People's United Bank Gallery (attached to the bank) behind the museum, which is closed for repairs. Entry at the back of the historic building. Sunday, April 13, 2 p.m. $5. 203-331-1104; www.barnum-museum.org.

The old building, a gift to the city from Barnum, is closed for repairs, following significant damage from a tornado that struck Bridgeport on June 24, 2010. The new humbug, however, is on display in the relatively new People's United Bank Gallery (attached to the bank) behind the museum, along with a collection of paintings, furniture and other Barnum memorabilia. Hours are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Feder said he will discuss some of history's most unusual frauds and myths, including the background of Barnum's Cardiff Giant and Feejee Mermaid.

"Why are archaeological frauds so common? Why are they so successful?" are two questions at the core of Feder's talk, he said.

As the museum points out: "Some perpetrators of archaeological frauds use their humbugs to support a preferred version of human antiquity, while others are only in it for the money. Did an ancient Etruscan living in southern Italy really leave a series of scrolls detailing the lives of his people and chronicling their subjugation by the Romans? A wealthy young man in Tuscany wanted people to believe that, but it wasn't true.

"Did the body of a 12-foot giant, "Goliath," from before Noah's flood, actually fossilize beneath farmland in upstate New York, where a farmer discovered it while digging a well in the late 1860s? George Hull wanted you to believe that. It wasn't true, but Barnum recognized an irresistible curiosity when he learned of it, and then created his own `Cardiff Giant' for people to examine."

"There are many reasons why the public has always been eager to ... accept these stories. I don't think it's one reason: That's the $64,000 question," he said. "But I guess with inflation, it would be the $64 million question.

"I think part of it is that people are fascinated by antiquity. Remember that famous line (from L.P. Hartley's novel "The Go-Between): `The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.' "

"And I think that creates public fascination. But the problem is that archaeologists tend to talk to each other in a very obscure and pedantic way at conferences and in scholarly publications," he said, laughing. "They don't do a lot of talking directly to the public. So the result is a vacuum of information. And when there's a vacuum there's a lot of phoney baloney created instead -- things like ancient aliens gave us the pyramids in Egypt.

"But isn't it even more meaningful and impressive to think that (humans) actually created them working in cooperation with each other?"